The former is, and the latter almost certainly is, a DC37 mislabeled as
a DB37.
There is a tendency - which I must admit I participated in for some
time, until I learned better - to call any D-shell connector a DB.
This is wrong. The DB size is the one usually used for 25-pin.
The sizes and their canonical pin counts are
DA 15-pin, such as used for AUI Ethernet or peecee joystick/MIDI
DB 25-pin, such as used for RS-232C serial ports and peecee
parallel ports
DC 37-pin, such as in
http://www.pccable.com/images/00830.jpg or
the box which started this thread
DD 50-pin, such as used by old Sun-3s for SCSI
DE 9-pin, such as used by peecee serial ports, and sometimes video
This is why you may find the 15-pin VGA connector called a DE15,
because it is (it's a DE shell with 15 pins) - and the "DB37" that
pccables.com is selling is actually a mislabeled DC37. (I feel sure
the one from
mycableshop.com is too, but I didn't see any obvious
pictures there.)
Like Tony, I've never seen a real DB37 and am inclined to doubt such a
beast exists. Other sizes do exist, but they are rather nonstandard;
for example, (some?) NeXT grayscale machines' monitor connector was a
D-shell connector with, if I recall, 19 pins - somewhere between DA and
DB size. (You could make a mechanically compatible connector by
removing pins from a DB25M or by cutting away part of one end of a
DB25F, though I don't know of anyone who's actually done either.) I
suppose you could call it a DA.KKKKKKK... connector, but that would be
excessively geeky :) and doesn't account for the way DE is actually
*smaller* than DD. (I assume DE was an afterthought.)
> although the DB44 does)
!! Interesting. Where'd you see that, Tony?
Moreover, the DB25 connector is technically not a part
of the RS-232
spec.
It was back when I got a copy of RS-232C by interlibrary loan, some ten
or fifteen years ago. Unless you're drawing a distinction between
RS-232 and RS-232C which is lost on me.
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